Coworking, Swarming and the Agile Workplace

8/2/2019 Coworking, Swarming and the Agile Workplace

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Z Research Summary / 2011

Coworking, Swarming, and the

Agile Workplace. Birds do it, beesdo it, schools o whale-avoiding

Atlantic herring do it. So dohockey teams, emergencydepartments, and volunteerfrefghters. In social groups likethese, collaborative eorts andcollective decision-making happenin the moment and contribute

signifcantly to survival and success.


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Coworking, Swarming, and the Agile Workplace Research Summary / 2Z

In the workplace, achieving this kind o seamless interaction among groups o

individuals has proven elusive. But with converging developments in technology,

social media, and cognitive science comes the prospect o achieving breakthrough

levels o organizational collaboration. What role, i any, will the physical workplace

play in this transormation?

Over the past two decades, digital technology and the internet have radically

changed communication processes and the nature o work itsel. Mobile devices like

iPads and smart phones and interactive applications like blogs, wikis, and social

mediacollectively reerred to as Web 2.0create networked environments with

huge potential or supporting collaboration among widely dispersed groups o people.

Putting this transormation into perspective, sotware entrepreneur Bill Coleman

notes that the most powerul inection points in the history o mankind have come

when new tools were developed to leverage and expand collective intelligence.

The rise o the internet, he says, is the third such inection point, the frst being the

development o language, and the second the invention o the printing press.1

What the impact o Web 2.0 isor could or should beon businesses organizations

and the ofces in which their members have traditionally come together in order

to communicate (and, it is hoped, leverage their collective intelligence) is still being

debated. Many speculate that, with people no longer needing to be in the same

place at the same time to share inormation and ideas, the ofce building as we

know it is destined or obsolescence.2

I the recent past is any indication, however, reports o the death o the ofce

continue to be highly exaggerated. The predicted mass exodus to home ofces hasnot materialized. A recent survey ound that less than two percent o people working

or large employers worldwide work rom home, and that most (over 60 percent) still

commute to an ofce our or fve days a week.3

In act, there are signs that the trend may be moving in the opposite direction. An

international survey undertaken or Johnson Controls in 2010 ound a signifcant

increase in the amount o time people spent working at the ofce. Respondents

(all o whom were identifed as exible workers, whose employers allow some

discretion in when and where they work) reported spending an average o 45 percent

o their work time in the ofce, up rom 18 percent in 2007, while percentages o

time working rom home and on the move decreased compared to 2007 levels.4

In his introduction to the report, Flexible Working 2010, Chairman o the Ofce

Productivity Network Paul Bartlett writes, there is no evidence that employers

inuenced or requested this shit in behavior, and that workers are increasingly

choosing to use the corporate ofce as a place to meet, interact, and collaborate.

According to the report, the act that 64 percent o its respondents indicated that

going to the ofce was important or extremely important, demonstrates how

much ace-to-ace interaction is an important part o the working lie.5

2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2010

Mobile Home Office

55

20

25

50

20

30

30

30

40

20

35

45

18

36

46

45

20

35

Flexible Working 2010


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Swarm Intelligence and Mirror Neurons

The assumption that virtual communication would negate the need or people

to gather together physically to accomplish work is proving to be inherently

awed, according to Andrew Laing, managing director at DEGW North America:

The richness o ace-to-ace communication allows or ast-paced and ad hoc

interactions, which help to speed up decision making and inormation ow in ways

that have not yet been ully matched by purely virtual work environments.6

Ad hoc and ast-paced interactions are increasingly the name o the game in todays

organization as the complexity and unpredictability o the external business environment

requires constant monitoring and minute-by-minute adjustments by companies

hoping to compete. A recent report rom Gartner, Inc., fnds knowledge work becoming

steadily less routine and increasingly characterized by volatility, hyper-connectedness,

and swarminga work style characterized by a urry o collective activity by anyone

and everyone conceivably available and able to add value.7

In contrast to traditional corporate teamscomposed o people who work together

regularly, oten in the same location and under the same managerswarms typically

encompass a diverse group o proessionals and experts who may not have worked

together beore and probably wont work as a team again in the uture. Swarms

orm quickly to attack a problem or opportunity, then dissipate as their members are

pulled into other ad hoc groups addressing other issues.

For years, scientists have been studying swarm intelligencethe collective behavior

o social insects like honeybees and antsto better understand the mechanisms

underlying the amazing eectiveness o groups o individuals interacting in themoment. Without layers o management or careully developed strategic plans,

these sel-organizing teams arrive at the best solutions to complex survival issues

like nest building and oraging or ood.

As early as a decade ago, companies like Southwest Airlines and Capital One

began applying swarm theory principals to optimize various business operations,

such as scheduling and materials management. More recently, in a book subtitled

How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at

Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done, National Geographic

editor Peter Miller outlines valuable business lessons rom nature:

From honeybee swarms weve learned that groups can reliably make good

decisions in a timely matter as long as they seek diversity o knowledge.

By studying termite mounds weve seen how even small contributions to a

shared project can create something useul. Finally, ocks o starlings have

shown us how, without direction rom a single leader, members o a group

can coordinate their behavior with amazing precision simply by paying attention

to their nearest neighbor.8

Swarms orm quickly

to attack a problem or

opportunity, then

dissipate as their

members are pulled into

other ad hoc groups

addressing other issues.


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The more we learn about the human brain and about collective intelligence across

the species, the clearer it becomes that physical proximity and a work environment

that supports and promotes interaction are essential components o collaboration.

There is a tremendous power in ace-to-ace meetings, says James Ware o the

Work Design Collaborative. Same-time, same-place can spark a powerul source o

collaborative innovation and meaning or people. He advocates putting the need or

personal connection at the core o new ofce design, creating workspaces that are

as chat-riendly as they are tech-riendly.14

Coworking: A Window on the Future

The entrepreneurial clubs and coworking spaces popping up across Europe

and North American oer one model o workspaces that support both virtual and

ace-to-ace networking. These repurposed warehouses and ofce buildings are

designed and managed to provide their members (who pay a monthly ee) with a

space to work, wif access, and shared amenities like conerence rooms and coee

bars and essential ofce equipment. Mostly signifcantly, according to the people

who use them, coworking spaces allow independent proessionals rom a variety o

backgrounds and areas o expertise to participate in the community and connection

and happy accidents that come rom physical co-location.

The Hub, an international chain o independently owned and operated coworking spaces,

calls its business social entrepreneurshipproviding space or people with good

ideas or the world.15 With ambitions that go beyond space-based-table-rental, the

Hub promotes its acilities as places or experience and encounter, ull o diverse

people doing amazing things.16

Jerome Chang o BLANKSPACES, a coworking space in Los Angeles that caters to

reelancers and entrepreneurs, likes to think o coworking as Web 2.5. He notes that

while Web 2.0 was about engagement, it was purely online and virtual engagement:

There was never that level o ace-to-ace interaction that has been tried and true

or thousands o years. He says that Web 2.5coworking spaceallows people to

get that ace-to-ace interaction back into a social networking community. I LinkedIn

had a store, this would be it.17

Jennier Magnolf, a consultant or Herman Miller, recently completed a study o the

coworking phenomenon as a window into the uture o work and a possible template orthe design o a physical workplace that supports both virtual and ace-to-ace networking.

The ofce is a state o mind, Magnolf says, and shes identifed several emergent

work behaviors that are shaping that state. In addition to new tools o mobility and

the social media mindset that people bring to work today, she notes a desire or

the accelerated serendipity and community that come with co-location. Coworking

spaces, she says, are the frst physical maniestation o the net culturea culture

that values sharing, openness, and co-creation.18

The more we learn

about the human brain

and about collective

intelligence across the

species, the clearer itbecomes that physical

proximity and a work

environment that supports

and promotes interaction

are essential components

o collaboration.


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Agility may be the

single highest priority

or workplaces now

and in the uture.

An idea o what that physical maniestation looks like can be ound on the Spaces

page o Hub Atlantas website. The site oers desk situations that range rom more

publicly situated and interactive desks in the Open Workspace area, to Dedicated

Desks with fle storage in a quieter area o the Hub. The Open Workspace area is

designed or maximum exibility, with urniture that can be arranged to accommodate

everything rom training sessions to gallery installations. The Dedicated Desk area

also oers project room or war room options or small groups. Shared support

spaces at the core o the Hub include a kitchen, private conerence and call rooms,

impromptu meeting areas, and a shower or Bike Commuters.19

Toward the Agile Workplace

Meanwhile, back in the real world o standardized oorplates and workstations,

organizations struggle to accommodateor at least not get in the way onew

ways o working. With the convergence o technology support o mobility, cloud

computing, the social media explosion, explains Brian Green, senior researcher

with Herman Millers Insight and Exploration team, you have enterprises ripe with

collaborative tools trying to operate in ofce environments designed to support

individuals working alone in workstations.20

Green believes that, or most organizations, the transormation to the kind o

uid and permeable spaces that encourage interaction and leverage collective

intelligence will take time. He and his colleagues in Herman Miller research and

design are currently conducting an extensive ethnographic study o how and where

collaboration takes place in existing ofce acilities in order to develop products

and services that help companies move rom workspaces designed to support

individuals working in isolation to more agile settings that can accommodateswarm behavior and support accelerated serendipity.

Agility may be the single highest priority or workplaces now and in the uture,

Green says. We want to help organizations develop physical places that are as open

and customizable as the digital spaces they work in, but that also leverage the real

value o place as a catalyst or human interaction.

Notes

1 Bollier, David. The Future o Work: What It Means or Individuals, Businesses, Markets, and

Governments. Aspen Institute Community and Society Program. 2011.

2 Hayward, Cathy. Workplace Trends: The Ofce o the Future, FM World, 9 December 2010.

3 VWork: Measuring the Benefts o Agility at Work. Unwired report, 2011.

4 Puybaraud, Marie. Flexible Working 2010. Global Workplace Innovation, Johnson

Controls, 2011.

5 Ibid.

6 Laing, Andrew. What Will the Future Workplace Look Like? Fortune 19 January 2011.

7 Gartner Says World o Work Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years.

.


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Coworking, Swarming, and the Agile Workplace Research Summary / 7

8 Miller, Peter. The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can

Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done. Penguin

Group, 2010.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Woolley, A. et al. Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of

Human Groups. Science October 29, 2010.

12 New Study by Carnegie Mellon, MIT and Union College Shows Collective Intelligence Of

Groups Exceeds Cognitive Abilities of Individual Group Members. .

13 Goleman, Daniel and Richard Boyatzis. Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership,

Harvard Business Review, September 2008.

14 Face to Face: Design and Technology for Collaboration, Impact 08

.

15 Global networks of coworking spaces. deskmag, .

16 The Hub. Website. .

17 Making Cubicles Cool, The Idealist, 8 January 2011. .

18 Magnolfi, Jennifer. A Window into the Future of Work: The global coworking phenomonon.

Presentation prepared for Herman Miller, 2011.

19 Hub Atlanta website. .

20 Green, Brian. Private conversation, March 31, 2011.

Z

2011 HermanMiller, Inc. Zeeland,MichiganLis among the registeredtrademarksof HermanMiller, Inc

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Coworking, Swarming and the Agile Workplace